Restoration
A Moment of Decision

By Darris McNeely

B y the time you read this we may well know the course of the next few years in the Middle East. More than 200,000 American troops are massed to invade Iraq and take out the regime of Saddam Hussein and destroy his suspected weapons of mass destruction. In a speech before the American Enterprise Institute on Feb. 26, President George W. Bush stated that the "dangers of our time must be confronted actively and forcefully...we are prepared to disarm Iraq by force."

In what was his clearest statement to date explaining his vision for the Middle East and the world, he went on to say that "success in Iraq could also begin a new stage for Middle Eastern peace and set in motion progress towards a truly democratic Palestinian state."

Mr. Bush sees democracy and Western ideals as the key to reversing the old patterns of conflict and removing the generations of hatred and bitterness that prevent the lasting solution for peace which so many have sought. It is hoped that a new democratic regime in Iraq will be the first step toward changing other Arab states and creating Western-style governments based on the freedom of the individual and economic openness. In short, this is a vision of a completely different Middle East than what we see now.

This won't be the first time this method has been tried. More than 80 years ago in the aftermath of World War I, the great powers gathered in Paris to decide what to do with the Arab peoples of the collapsed Ottoman Empire. The nations of Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine (later partitioned to form the modern state of Israel) and Saudi Arabia were among the nations created at that historic conference. Unfortunately, the problems that have plagued the region since were sown within the lines drawn to form the map we see today. Will a new American-led effort to redress the area's ancient problems result in a lasting peace? Time will tell, but history is not on America's side.

Read the full article at www.wnponline.org/wnp/wnp0303/restoration0303.htm

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Restoration A Moment of Decision

By Darris McNeely

Read the full article at www.wnponline.org/wnp/wnp0303/restoration0303.htm

Restoration
A Moment of Decision